Fuel 85 (2006) 1979–1986

www.fuelfirst.com

Ballistic properties and burning behaviour of an ammonium

perchlorate/guanidine nitrate/sodium nitrate airbag solid propellant
a,*
A. Ulas , G.A. Risha b, K.K. Kuo b

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Middle East Technical University, 06531 Ankara, Turkey
b
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA

Received 26 January 2006; received in revised form 22 March 2006; accepted 23 March 2006
Available online 24 April 2006

Abstract

An experimental investigation on the determination of ballistic properties and burning behavior of a composite solid propellant for
airbag application was conducted. The experimental results were obtained using a high-pressure optical strand burner. Steady-state burn-
ing rates were determined for a pressure range of 20.8–41.5 MPa and initial propellant temperatures of 30 to +80 C. For the pressure
and temperature ranges tested, the temperature sensitivity was on the order of 1 · 103 K1. The pressure exponent was found to be a
function of the initial propellant temperature and was 0.75 at 25 C. The activation energy and the pre-exponential factor of the Arrhe-
nius equation are 2.735 kcal/mol and 15.06 cm/s, respectively. The pressure deflagration limit for this propellant was found to be in the
range of 8.37–8.72 MPa. During combustion, small condensed-phase spherical particles were ejected from the burning surface. The size
of the particles decreased with either increasing the pressure or the initial propellant temperature. For pressures below 41.4 MPa, average
particle size was on the order of 900 lm, and at 84.4 MPa, the bead size was much smaller, on the order of 300 lm. A chemical analysis
on these particles using both the ESEM and the X-ray diffraction method indicated that the material of the beads was mostly sodium
chloride with a small amount of silicon-containing compounds.
 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Airbag; Solid propellant; Ballistic properties

1. Introduction the solid-propellant system, a solid-propellant grain is

The presence of airbags in today’s automobiles provides
increased protection to the vehicle operator and passen-
gers. Crash tests showed that for an airbag to be useful
as a protective device, the bag must deploy and inflate
within 40 ms [1]. Therefore, a rapid pressurizing system
must be employed in airbags. Research on airbag inflator
design for automobiles has been progressing since the
1960’s and different airbag inflation techniques have been
considered over these years including stored gas system,
solid-propellant gas generators, and hybrid systems [2].
The stored gas system is simply a compressed gas chamber
that is equipped with a valve that opens during collision. In
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 312 210 5260; fax: +90 312 210 1266.
E-mail address: aulas@metu.edu.tr (A. Ulas).
ignited upon collision and generates gaseous combustion
products to inflate the airbag. The hybrid airbag inflator
system is a combination of the two. It is initiated with a
pyrotechnic igniter to combust the reactive stored gas to
produce combustion product gases to inflate the airbag.
Among these, solid-propellant gas generator is the most
common and the most reliable.
Over the past 30 years, different solid-propellant gas
generator technologies have been explored to meet the
stringent requirements for motor vehicle airbag applica-
tions [3]. Sodium-azide based inflators are still the most
common in airbag systems [1]. Typically, the grain is
approximately 60% sodium azide and there are about 75–
100 g of propellant in the driver’s side inflation system [1].
This paper considers the combustion of an Ammo-
nium Perchlorate/Guanidine Nitrate/Sodium Nitrate

0016-2361/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2006.03.026
1980 A. Ulas et al. / Fuel 85 (2006) 1979–1986
solid-propellant formulation to produce combustion prod-
uct gases to inflate an automobile airbag. The chemical
ingredients (by weight) of the propellant include 23.5%
Ammonium Perchlorate (NH4ClO4), 58.5% Guanidine
Nitrate (CH6N4O3), 17.8% Sodium Nitrate (NaNO3), and
0.2% silicon dioxide (SiO2). In this study, burning behavior
of this propellant was investigated at different operating
conditions. In addition, ballistic properties such as the pres-
sure deflagration limit (PDL), the burning rate as a function
of pressure and initial propellant temperature, the tempera-
ture sensitivity, and the activation energy of this propellant
were determined experimentally.
2. Experimental
Experiments were conducted in a high-pressure optical
strand burner. The operating pressure and the initial pro-
pellant temperature were varied from 20.8 to 41.5 MPa
and from 30 to +80 C, respectively. A schematic dia-
gram of the setup is shown in Fig. 1. In this investigation,
nitrogen was used as the purge gas. The initial temperature
of the propellant strand was controlled by preconditioning
the purge gas initial temperature using either a cryogenic
heat exchanger or an electric heating unit for low- and
high-temperature experiments, respectively. The initial pro-
pellant strand temperature was determined by either an
S- or R-type thermocouple whose junction was embedded
in the propellant strand. A Pulnix CCD camera and a
Fig. 1. Schematic of the high-pressure optical strand burner experimental setup.
Super VHS Panasonic VCR were used for the real-time
recording of the propellant burning process. A Setra pres-
sure transducer was used to record the instantaneous bur-
ner pressure. To have a constant pressure during test runs,
a computer-controlled solenoid valve was installed in the
exhaust line. The solenoid valve maintained constant pres-
sure in the burner with less than ±1% variation. A Nicolet
data acquisition system was used to record the thermocou-
ple signals and the pressure transducer output.
The propellant was received in the form of powder and
it was pressed into cylindrical pellets using a computer-con-
trolled presser. The propellant strands were pressed using
an extremely detailed pressing procedure to meet stringent
density specifications. Before the pressing, the propellant
powder was dried at 90 C for removing any moisture.
For PDL determination tests, short pellets (about 6 mm
in length) were pressed according to the following proce-
dure. First, the pressure was increased to 138 MPa and
kept constant at this level for one minute. This duration
was sufficient for the powder to relax at this pressure.
The pressure was then increased to 241 MPa and again
kept constant at this level for another minute. Finally,
the pressure was increased to 345 MPa and kept constant
for ten more minutes. During this period, the pressed pow-
der was fully relaxed, and the density became uniform
throughout the pellet. For the burning rate measurements,
longer pellets (20–23 mm long) were required to suppress
the effect of the transients at the beginning and end of
 A. Ulas et al. / Fuel 85 (2006) 1979–1986
the tests. The same pressing procedure was used to press
these long pellets, except that after reaching 138 and
241 MPa pressures, it was kept at these levels for 5 min.
Also, after reaching 345 MPa, a 30-min interval was
required for the relaxation of the pellets based upon the
force gauge reading.
The density of each pellet was determined by measuring
the geometry (i.e., diameter and length) and mass of the
pellet. A micrometer with a resolution of 0.025 mm and a
micro-scale (XE-50 Denver Instrument) with a resolution
of ten thousandth of a gram was used to measure the geom-
etry and mass of the pellet, respectively. Only pellets with a
density of 1.62 g/cc or greater, as specified by the propel-
lant manufacturer, were used for the strand burner tests.
For measuring the sub-surface temperature profile and
the surface temperature of the propellant strand, the pro-
pellant powder was pressed into a cone and cup configura-
tion to embed the micro-thermocouple inside the
propellant. Following a procedure given in [4], thermocou-
ple wires 25-lm in diameter were welded and then rolled
into a flat foil with a thickness of approximately 8 lm.
The thermocouple bead was placed at the top of the cone,
and the cup portion was then slowly positioned on the cup
to squeeze the thermocouple bead between the two propel-
lant surfaces. Force was exerted on the top of the propel-
lant strand in the vertical direction to slightly deform the
thermocouple bead to match the contour of the propellant
interface. A schematic of the sample configuration is shown
in Fig. 2a.
For the PDL experiments, a small piece of NOSOL 363
(a double-base gun propellant) was attached to the top of
the propellant strand and a CO2 laser was used as the igni-
ter (Fig. 2b). NOSOL 363 ignition initiator provided
uniform ignition of the test sample, also it prevented in-
depth radiation absorption by the sample, and flame
extinction that could occur when the radiative ignition
source was abruptly removed. For the steady-state burning
rate experiments, the propellant strand was ignited by a
conventional nichrome wire (Fig. 2a).
Fig. 2. Sample configurations for the: (a) steady-state strand burner experiments, (b) PDL experiments.
1981
2.1. Burning surface observation
The close-up observation of the burning surface of a
propellant is very useful in understanding the combustion
behavior of the propellant. In order to observe the burning
surface of propellant with a high resolution, a copper-
vapor laser was incorporated. A schematic diagram of
the propellant sample configuration is shown in Fig. 3.
Optical lenses were used to convert the cylindrical laser
beam into a thin laser sheet, which has a width around 8–
10 mm at the location of the burning sample. A Panasonic
SVHS VCR with a filming rate of 60 fields per second was
used in conjunction with a Pulnix CCD camera having a
90-mm macro lens to record the burning surface phenom-
ena. The top surface of the pellets was slanted at 45 prior
to the tests for a better view of the surface (Fig. 3). For
burning surface visualization tests, the propellant sample
was ignited with the CO2 laser without any NOSOL-363
propellant initiator.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Pressure deflagration limit
The results of PDL tests show that the PDL limit is sen-
sitive to the density of the pressed pellets. The PDL limit
for pellets with densities larger than 1.62 g/cc ranged from
7.34 to 8.03 MPa, whereas the PDL limit for pellets with
densities in the range of 1.56–1.61 g/cc ranged from 8.37
to 8.72 MPa. The PDL data was used as a lower pressure
boundary for steady-state strand burner experiments.
3.2. Steady-state burning rate
The burning rate was deduced using a linear curve fit to
data obtained from recorded images. The time vs. distance
data were deduced by measuring the distance burned and
the corresponding time. Fig. 4 shows typical time vs. dis-
tance trajectories of the propellant for the various pressures
1982 A. Ulas et al. / Fuel 85 (2006) 1979–1986

From all the video recordings, it is observed that the flame

is always attached to the burning surface of the propellant
strand, which is a typical phenomenon of AP-containing
propellants.
Fig. 6 shows the burning rate as a function of pressure
and initial propellant temperature. Although the propellant
powder supplied by the manufacturer was very limited,
great care was taken to conduct multiple burning rate mea-
surements at the same test conditions. In Fig. 6, one can see
the multiple data points (two or even three data points) at
the same pressure. Sometimes the data points are very close
to each other and they are on the top of each other. Show-
ing the multiple data points at each test condition does the
same purpose as the error bars. By looking at the multiple
Fig. 3. Propellant sample configuration for burning surface observation. test results at each pressure in the plots, the variations in
the burning rate measurements can be easily seen. The
12.5
0.5
results showed that the burning rate data at the same test
Increasing Pressure
conditions are very reproducible, indicating that the error
bars would be very small. The burning rate law expressions
10
0.4 as a function of chamber pressure at three different initial
propellant temperatures are also given in Fig. 6. For the
Burned distance [cm]

7.5
0.3

Pressure [psig]
0.2
5 3000 4000 5000 6000
20.8 MPa
27.7 MPa o
T = 25 C
0.1
2.5 34.6 MPa i

41.5 MPa 3 o
T = 80 C
i rb = 0.2133 P 0.665
0 T = -30 C
o
R 2 = 0.9941
n = 0.665
Burning rate [cm/s]

0 i
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Time [s] 2

Fig. 4. Burning surface trajectories at various pressures.

rnb == 00.754
.1452 P 0.754
R 2 = 0.9910
tested. The linearity of the curves suggests that the 1-D lin-
ear burning assumption is valid. rbn==00.635
.1996 P 0.635
R 2 = 0.9992
Fig. 5 is a series of video images taken from a test con- 1
ducted at a pressure of P = 41.5 MPa to illustrate the 0.9
‘‘layer-by-layer’’ regression process. Frame zero shows 0.8
the onset of the propellant strand ignition using nichrome 20 30 40
wire. Frame four (0.13 s later), the beginning of layer-by- Pressure [MPa]
layer burning was observed. The entire strand was consumed Fig. 6. Pressure and initial propellant temperature dependency of the
by frame 24, which corresponds to 0.8 s after ignition. burning rate.

Fig. 5. Series of selected frames of strand burner experiment at P = 41.5 MPa.

 A. Ulas et al. / Fuel 85 (2006) 1979–1986 1983

2.8 1.1 Pressure [psig]

4000 6000 8000 10000
2.6
+4% 1
Calculated burning rate [cm/s]

Calculated burning rate [in/s]

2.4
-4%
0.9 0.7339
rb [cm/s] = 0.191 P[MPa]
2.2
2
R = 0.9994
10
2 0.8

Burning rate [cm/s]

0.665
rb [cm/s] = 0.21334 P[MPa]
1.8 2
0.7 R = 0.9996

1.6
0.6
0.652 0.497
1.4
r [cm/s] = 0.0121 P[MPa] T[K]
b o
1 PSU Data, T o=
Ti = 80 C 80 C i
0.5
1.2 o
TalleyTData, T o=
= 100 100 C
1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 i i C

Experimental burning rate [cm/s]

Fig. 7. Correlation of operating parameters to predict burning rate.

20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90100
Pressure [MPa]
room temperature case, the pressure exponent was 0.75
Fig. 9. Combined low- and high-pressure burn rate data at elevated
based on the pressure range tested. temperatures.
An empirical expression, Eq. (1), was developed to cor-
relate the measured burning rate to operating parameters
(pressure and initial temperature). Fig. 7 shows the exper-
imentally measured burning rate vs. the calculated burning Pressure [psig]
rate using Eq. (1). This correlation can be used to within 4000 6000 8000 10000
4% accuracy.
0:652 0:497
rb ½cm/s ¼ 0:0121P ½MPa T i ½K ð1Þ
10 0.760
rb[cm/s] = 0.1368 P[MPa]
In Ref. [5], high-pressure burning rate data obtained 2
R = 0.9996
from an underwater strand burner using an ultrasound sys-
Burn rate [cm/s]

tem for this propellant is given at initial temperatures 10,

23, and 100 C. Figs. 8–10 present combined low-pressure
1 rb[cm/s] = 0.1996 P[MPa]
0.635

2
Pressure [psig] R = 0.9997
4 o
2000 4000 6000 8000 10
PSUTData,
i = -30
TC
o
= -30 C
i
o o
Talley
Ti Data,
= -10 TC= -10 C i

0.1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0.802
rb [cm/s] = 0.1335 P[MPa]
Pressure [MPa]
Burning rate [cm/s]

2
R = 0.9907
Fig. 10. Combined low- and high-pressure burn rate data at cold
temperatures.

1 PSU Data and high-pressure data. In spite of the difference in burning

Talley Data
rate measurement techniques, the two sets of room temper-
ature data can be fitted by a single power law expression as
shown in Fig. 8. For other than room temperature test
runs, each set has its own power law correlation as shown
0.1 in Figs. 9 and 10. The burning rate results in Figs. 9 and 10
10 100 are not correlated with a single power law due to different
Pressure [MPa] initial temperatures for the two sets of data. In Fig. 9, the
Fig. 8. Combined low- and high-pressure burn rate data at room initial temperatures are +80 and +100 C, and in Fig. 10
temperature. they are 30 and 10 C.
1984 A. Ulas et al. / Fuel 85 (2006) 1979–1986

3.3. Temperature sensitivity Pressure [psig]

5000 10000 15000 20000
Temperature sensitivity is an important characteristic of 0.0025

a solid propellant. It is desirable to have a solid propellant +20%

with a low temperature sensitivity, so that the burning rate

Temperature Sensitivity, σp , [K ]
-1
0.002
of the solid propellant is not significantly affected by the
temperature of the environment. Solid-propellant tempera-
ture sensitivity, rP, is defined by Eq. (2), which represents 0.0015
the change of the burning rate per degree change in initial -20%
temperature at constant pressure.
0.001
o ln rb
rP  ð2Þ -1 -4 -5
σ [K ] = 7.701x10 + 2.071x10 P[MPa] - 1.032x10 P[MPa]
-7 2
oT i P p

The temperature sensitivity at various pressures was
determined by constructing a semi-natural log plot of burn-
ing rate versus initial temperature. In this plot, the slope of
the linear curve fit represents the temperature sensitivity of
the propellant at the specified pressure. A plot illustrating
this method is shown in Fig. 11. After rP was determined
at each pressure, a plot showing the pressure dependency
of temperature sensitivity was constructed (Fig. 12). The
rP is 0.0011 K1 at P = 20.8 MPa and gradually increases
up to 0.00208 K1 at P = 114 MPa. Fig. 12 also shows a
2nd order polynomial fitted to the experimental data. The
propellant temperature sensitivity values are quite low,
which means that the propellant performance would not
be significantly influenced by the temperature of its envi-
ronment. The low temperature sensitivity characteristic of
the propellant is also apparent from Fig. 11, which shows
almost a 20% change in the propellant burning rate when
the propellant initial temperature changes from 30 to
+100 C. In the ballistic field, 20% increase in the propel-
lant burning rate for an initial temperature range as wide
as the one considered in this study (30 to +100 C) is
not considered a significant increase. Low temperature
1.6 P = 86.8 MPa P = 46.3 MPa
P = 59.8 MPa P = 127.8 MPa
P = 114.2 MPa P = 41.5 MPa
1.2
0.8
ln (rb )
0.0005
20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Pressure [MPa]
Fig. 12. Pressure dependency of temperature sensitivity.
sensitivity is a highly desirable characteristic of a propel-
lant. When the burning rate is not significantly influenced
with the propellant initial temperature, the airbag inflation
time (which is related to the propellant burning rate) is also
not significantly effected with the initial temperature. The
temperature sensitivity information and its pressure depen-
dency are useful for design predictions of the performance
of airbag inflators using this propellant.
3.4. Burning surface temperature
The subsurface temperature profile of a solid propellant
is governed by an exponential profile until it reaches the
surface [6]. Therefore, to determine the surface tempera-
ture, the temperature profile was plotted on a semi-log plot
versus distance from the propellant surface. The departure
point on the semi-log plot represents the surface tempera-
ture (Ts). A typical temperature profile is shown in
P = 34.6 MPa Fig. 13. The sub-surface thermal wave penetration depth
P = 27.7 MPa is on the order of 20 lm. The dashed vertical line at
P = 20.8 MPa
x = 0 in Fig. 13 represents the burning surface location.
The positive x domain corresponds to the gas-phase region
and the negative x domain corresponds to the unburned
solid-phase region. The surface temperature for the pres-

0.4 sure range of 20.8–41.5 MPa varied from 580 to 755 K.

The gas-phase flame temperature could not be measured
0 because the thermocouple was burnout in the high-temper-
ature flame region.
-0.4 In the Arrhenius-type burning rate law, Eq. (3), the
activation energy and the pre-exponential factor were deter-
-0.8 mined as Ea = 2.735 kcal/mol and A = 15.06 cm/s, respec-
tively, by plotting measured burning rates vs. surface
-80 -40 0 40 80
temperatures (Fig. 14) and curve fitting the measured data.
o
Initial temperature [ C]
 
Fig. 11. Burning rate as a function of initial temperature at various
Ea
rb  A exp ð3Þ
pressures. Ru T s
 A. Ulas et al. / Fuel 85 (2006) 1979–1986 1985

3.5. Burning surface observations

Solid-Phase
1000 At low-pressures (P < 17 MPa), the propellant burns in
900 a highly non-one-dimensional manner; i.e., there was a
800 dynamic melt zone on the burning surface, which made it
Temperature [K]

700 difficult to achieve ‘‘layer-by-layer’’ burning. Fig. 15 shows

600 P=4,000
P = 27.7 MPapsig several instantaneous pictures taken from the recorded
r =0.702 in/s
500 r b = 1.78 cm/s
b video images. Most of the time, this thick melt zone ejected
Ts=641 K large particles (beads) from the burning surface, with diam-
400 eters ranging from 400 to 2000 lm. Sometimes, either these
ejected beads or drippings from the liquid melt layer ignited
300 the exposed side surfaces of the strand. It was observed
Gas-Phase that, as the pressure increased, the thickness of this melt
layer decreased, resulting in a lesser effect on the surface
200 burning behavior of the propellant.
-40 -20 0 20 40 Spherical beads, shown in Fig. 16, were recovered after
Distance from surface [μm] every test runs. A particle size analysis was conducted on
Fig. 13. A typical plot of temperature vs. distance from the burning the recovered beads. At a pressure of 86.3 MPa, the aver-
surface. age diameter of beads was found to be approximately
300 lm. For pressures below 41.5 MPa, the average diam-
eter was 1000 lm.

3.6. Chemical analysis of ‘‘bead-like’’ residue

Surface temperature,Ts [K]
800 700 600 Peculiar combustion residues (beads) were observed
after every test run. The beads were very small for the
10
ambient and elevated temperature test runs, but slightly
Burning rate [cm/s]

1
A = 15.06 cm/s
E a = 2.735 kcal/mol

0.1
0.0012 0.0013 0.0014 0.0015 0.0016 0.0017
-1
Inverse surface temperature, 1/Ts [K ]

Fig. 14. Arrhenius plot. Fig. 16. Image of the burning surface (P = 7.68 MPa).

Fig. 15. Photograph showing the burning surface (Laser-assisted burning at P = 2.86 MPa).
1986 A. Ulas et al. / Fuel 85 (2006) 1979–1986
Fig. 17. Magnified view of beads under: (a) 29 times, (b) 1500 times magnification.
larger for the low temperature tests. The bead-like residue
was analyzed using an environmental scanning electron
microscope (ESEM) to construct the elemental map of
the bead and an X-ray diffraction to determine its com-
pound composition. The X-ray diffraction results agreed
well with the ESEM results and indicated that the material
of the beads was mostly sodium chloride, NaCl, with a
small amount of silicon-containing compounds. Fig. 17 is
a photograph of the beads at a magnification of 28.8 and
1500 times of their original size. The diameters of particles
in this photograph are approximately 900 lm.
4. Summary and conclusions
An experimental study was conducted to determine the
steady-state burning characteristics and some important
ballistic properties of an Ammonium Perchlorate/Guani-
dine Nitrate/Sodium Nitrate solid-propellant formulation
for airbag applications. The pressure deflagration limit of
the propellant was found to be in the range of 8.37–
8.72 MPa. The pressure exponent was 0.802 at room tem-
perature. The burning rate at room temperature can be
represented by an Arrhenius burning rate law with activa-
tion energy of 2.739 kcal/mol and pre-exponential factor of
15.06 cm/s. The temperature sensitivity of the propellant is
relatively low (0.001–0.002 K1). The low rP characteristic
represents a desirable feature of an airbag propellant. The
temperature sensitivity dependency on pressure was deter-
mined for pressures ranging from 20.8 to 128 MPa. At
low-pressures (P < 17.3 MPa), the propellant burns in a
highly non-one-dimensional manner, due to the dynamic
melt zone and particle formation and ejection phenomena
near the burning surface region. However, for pressures
beyond 20.8 MPa, it burns in a nearly ‘‘layer-by-layer’’
form. The propellant generates some residual spherical
beads on the order of 900 lm for pressures below
41.5 MPa. For pressures around 86.3 MPa, the spherical
beads are on the order of 300 lm in diameter. The bead
diameter decreases with increasing chamber pressure and/
or initial propellant temperature. Both the ESEM and the
X-ray diffraction method indicate that the composition of
the bead residue was mostly sodium chloride.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Talley Defense Systems
for the sponsorship of this research program. The interest
and support of Mr. Christopher P. Ludwig and Dr. Robert
Glick are greatly appreciated. Also, the authors would like
to acknowledge the micro-thermocouple and pellet press-
ing effort of Professor Baoqi Zhang at PSU. Special thanks
go to Mr. Bruce Anderson of Talley Defense Systems for
Talley’s high-pressure burning rate data.
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